Serena Williams’ ex-coach Rennae Stubbs reacted to the trolls targeting her for a bold Wimbledon 2025 prediction for Jack Draper. Her response came after the fourth seed’s second-round loss to Marin Cilic on Thursday, July 3.
Coming from a first-round victory over Sebastian Baez, Draper lost his second match in four sets. Cilic was dominant over the Brit in the first two sets, winning them 6-4, 6-3. Draper managed to come back with a 6-1 win in the third set, but the 36-year-old Croatian player kept his composure in the fourth set (6-4) to win the match.
Just a few hours after this defeat, Stubbs, who was Williams’ coach during the 2022 US Open, shared a post on her X handle to clarify her bold prediction. In March, Stubbs stated that Draper would be winning Wimbledon 2025, for which she was called out by the fans after the Brit’s early loss in the third major of the season.
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Stubbs stated that she had shared the post as sarcasm, and it was a jab at the British media who were hyping up Draper after the player entered the Indian Wells Masters finals. She wrote:
"For all those going on about Jack Draper losing. You do realize when i said what i said, it was sarcasm. But unfortunately people don’t get Aussie humor. The whole pt was when he won Miami i could sense the entire uk press/public thinking he was going to win Wimbledon."
Notably, Draper had an impressive run at the Indian Wells Masters that saw him defeat the likes of Carlos Alcaraz in the semis and Holger Rune in the finals.
Jack Draper on his grass court prowess after Wimbledon second-round defeat
Jack Draper shared his honest take on his grass-court prowess after defeat to Marin Cilic at Wimbledon. This was Draper's second grass court tournament of the season after the HSBC Championships, where he lost in the semifinals to Jiri Lehecka.
In an interview after his defeat, Draper admitted that his performance on the grass courts had been disappointing. The Brit further remarked that he was also unsure about his performance at the Queen's Club Championships. Draper said (via ATP Tour):
"I've been really disappointed with the way my game's been on the grass this year, in all honesty. I wasn't feeling too great at Queen's. I don't know how I made the semis there and gave myself a chance of making the final. It highlighted to me this year that I really struggled on the grass. I felt great on the hard, felt great on the clay."
During the conversation, Draper also had a bit of praise for his opponent, Cilic, when he said that the latter bullied him on the court during this second-round match at Wimbledon.
